ROOTS of Country Music

The ProfessionalWork of Cowboy Copas

(Jul. 15, 1913 – Mar. 5, 1963)

Career Highlights

Barn Dance Affiliate

• Louisiana Hayride
• Ozark Jubilee

Grand Ole Opry Member -1943

Radio, Film & TV

• WCHS Old Farm Hour
• WWVA Wheeling Jamboree

• Ernest Tubb’s  Midnight Jamboree

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 1
• Top-20 Singles: 15
• Crossover Singles: 0
• Charted Singles: 15
• Years Active: (1946-1963)

Career Labels

• King Records (1946-1952)
• Starday Records (1960-1963)

Billboard Top-20 Singles

1. Filipino Baby -1946
2. Signed Sealed and Delivered -1948
3. Tennessee Waltz
4. Tennessee Moon
5. Breeze
6. I'm Waltzing with Tears in My Eyes
7. Candy Kisses -1949
8. Hangman's Boogie
9. The Strange Little Girl -1951
10. 'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered -1952
11. Alabam*1# -1960
12. Flat Top -1961
13. Sunny Tennessee
14. Signed Sealed and Delivered
15. Goodbye Kisses -1963

*-No. 1 Chart Single

#-Biggest Chart Single

1-3rd Biggest Song In Country Music -1960

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Alabam: The Cowboy Copas Story

Cowboy Copas, a popular honky-tonk singer of the fifties, made a stunning comeback in 1960 after an eight year gap in his chart activity. Copas achieved national fame when he replaced Eddy Arnold as a vocalist in Pee Wee King’s Golden West Cowboys band in 1943. Copas had the third biggest song in country music in 1960, when he dominated the airwaves that year with his number one smash single, Alabam. 

Cowboy Copas was born July 15, 1913 in Jefferson Township, Ohio. He dropped out of school at the age of 14 and began playing fiddle in several string bands around his Ohio home. Copas appeared on WLW-AM and WKRC-AM in Cincinnati during the 1930s. In 1940 he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he performed on WNOX-AM with his band, the Gold Star Rangers. 

Copas signed a recording contract with King Records in 1946, and his debut single, Filipino Baby (No. 4, 1946), soared to the top of the charts. In his earliest recordings, Copas was singing in his honky-tonk trademark style, considered standard for country and western performers at that time. Hank Williams, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Lefty Frizzell and Webb Pierce, also developed the Honky-tonk brand, which became a very popular sound during their era. 

Cowboy continued his chart presence with songs such as Signed, Sealed and Delivered (No. 2, 1948), Tennessee Waltz (No. 3, 1948) and Tennessee Moon (No. 7, 1948). 

After the moderate singles Breeze (No. 12, 1948) and I'm Waltzing with Tears in My Eyes (No. 12, 1949), Copas hit the top-ten again with Candy Kisses (No. 5, 1949). Although Copas didn't sustain his stellar popularity of the late 1940s over the next decade, he continued to perform regularly at the Grand Ole Opry and appeared on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee. Even though his momentum began to fade, he charted a few more singles, including Hangman's Boogie (No. 14, 1949), The Strange Little Girl (No. 5, 1951) and Tis Sweet to Be Remembered (No. 8, 1952), which was his last chart entry for more than eight years. 

Trying to carve out a respectable living in country music during his era was difficult at best. Record sales were awfully low and concert tickets didn’t generate the huge revenue such as today. The country music singer’s life was an endless grind of beer halls, five hundred mile jaunts on country roads between shows and maybe a Grand Ole Opry appearance on Saturday night. That was certainly the case during the years Copas was diligently forging his career. 

After Cowboy’s King contract expired in 1955, he had a brief lackluster partnership with Dot Records. During the late 1950s, Copas remained popular on the Opry, but he wasn’t producing any new recordings. Finally, an opportunity came along with Starday Records. After inking a contract with Starday In 1960, Copas surged to the top of the charts with Alabam (No. 1, 1960). The song became the biggest of his career and the third biggest in country music that year when it claimed the top chart position for twelve consecutive weeks.

Alabam met heavy competition with Hank Locklin’s Please Help Me, I’m Falling and Jim Reeve’s He’ll have to go, as both singles claimed the top chart position for fourteen consecutive weeks. Locklin’s song however, was certified as the biggest in country music that year. Nonetheless, it was an amazing feat for Copas who aside from the Opry, had been out of the spotlight for eight years. Alabam was also a boost for Starday Records, who was not a major player in the recording industry. 

During the next two years, he only charted three moderate singles during Copas’ brief comeback. A remake of Signed, Sealed and Delivered (No.10, 1961), peaked at number ten, followed by Flat Top (No. 9, 1961). Seemingly, Cowboy was at the pinnacle of his career when it abruptly ended in a fatal airplane crash. Copas' last single, a somewhat peculiar title, Goodbye Kisses (No. 12, 4/27/1963), charted shortly after his death. All of his fifteen chart singles made the Billboard top-20.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Aircraft Accident

On March 3, 1963, Cowboy Copas, Patsy Cline and Hawkshaw Hawkins performed at a benefit concert in Kansas City, Kansas for the family of disc jockey Cactus Jack Call, who had died the previous December in an automobile accident. Among the performers was Billy Walker (Charlie’s Shoes), who received an urgent phone call and needed to return to Nashville immediately. Hawkins gave Walker his commercial plane ticket and instead flew back later in a private plane in Walker's place.

On March 5, Hawkins, Cline and Copas left for Nashville, Tennessee, USA in a Piper Comanche piloted by Cline's manager and Copas’ son-in-law, Randy Hughes. After stopping to refuel in Dyersburg, Tennessee, the craft took off at 6:07 p.m. (CT). The plane flew into severe weather and crashed near Camden, Tennessee, ninety miles from Nashville. There were no survivors. The reported time of the crash varies sometime between 6:20pm and 7:00pm. Patsy's watch was reportedly stopped at 6:20pm.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, written and compiled by Richard Bell. Roots of Country Music. Oct., 15, 2010.